


Duke of Edinburgh Gold Award

by astralpenguin



Category: Yuri!!! on Ice (Anime)
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, Camping, Crushes, Duke of Edinburgh Award, Established Relationship, Everyone is 16/17, Gen, Hiking, Inspired by true events, Leo and Guang-Hong are already together, M/M, Occasional Chatfic, Pining, Sixth Form, Tags May Change, Technology Deprivation, Temporarily Unrequited Love, Tents, UK High School, a lot of swearing
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-04-24
Updated: 2017-06-29
Packaged: 2018-10-23 14:41:32
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 9
Words: 8,395
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10721355
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/astralpenguin/pseuds/astralpenguin
Summary: A group of stressed teenagers are (voluntarily!) sent to the countryside to hike and campFriendships will be tested! New bonds will form! They will inevitably get lost at some point!But, hey, at least it looks good on a CV, right?





	1. Getting Into Teams

**Author's Note:**

> my friend told me that i wasn't allowed to write this until i'd finished smth but she can't actually stop me hahahahaha

“Remind me why I agreed to this again?”

“Because, Yuuri, it’ll be fun! And you wouldn’t want me to do this all on my own now would you?”

Yuuri sighed as he followed his friend into the classroom. “You’d survive.”

“Yuuri!” Phichit flung his hand to his chest in mock-hurt. “Are you seriously suggesting you’d abandon me?”

“My parents have already paid so I don’t exactly have a choice anymore.”

“Precisely. Look,” Phichit pointed to a table in the far corner, “there’s Leo and Guang-Hong.” Yuuri followed him and sat down with them. There were a few other people that Yuuri knew in the room, but he wasn’t really close with any of them.

They’d all be getting a lot closer soon.

“Hi.” Guang-Hong smiled at Yuuri and Phichit as they sat down.

“How long do you think this meeting’s going to take?” Leo asked.

“Ciao-Ciao said it could take all of lunch.”

“Ugh, is that why everyone’s brought food? I left mine in the common room.” Leo slumped back on his chair.

“I did tell you to bring it.” Guang-Hong shook his head. “Multiple times.”

“Do you want to run and get it? I can just tell Mr Cialdini that you’re running late,” said Yuuri.

Leo shook his head. “Don’t worry about it. I have a free next, so I can just eat then if this goes on too long.”

“Okay, well if you’re sure.”

The classroom door opened and Mr Cialdini rushed in. He seemed to be worried about being late. These worries vanished as he looked around the room and saw that a number of people who were supposed to be there were not.

“I did say to be here for 12:15, right?”

“Yeah,” one of the people in the room said.

“And it’s 12:25 now?”

“Uh huh,” the same voice confirmed.

“So why are there people missing? You  _ were _ told you’d be picking your groups today, weren’t you?”

“Yurotchka’s probably still asleep in the common room. That’s where he was last period anyway,” said a girl with red hair (Mila? Yuuri didn’t share any classes with her so he wasn’t sure), “and Otabek’s probably with him.”

“Well, they and the other absentees will just have to go where there’s space. The rest of you can pick your groups now. Between five to seven people per group, please.”

Yuuri looked at his friends. Phichit, Leo, Guang-Hong, himself. They needed to find at least one other person or risk being split up.

They looked round at the rest of the room. People tended to be getting in groups with their friends. It didn’t look like there was anyone left on their own, or even any twos or threes. Yuuri supposed that they could volunteer to have Otabek and Yuri with them, or even Minami who for some reason had also failed to appear.

“Hey, you two!” Phichit was calling over to the other side of the room. “Come over here a sec?”

Yuuri winced. He’d momentarily forgotten that Phichit was also good friends with Christophe. Hell, he’d momentarily forgotten that  _ he  _ was also good friends with Christophe. 

Chris and his other friend made their way to the table that Yuuri and the others were sitting at. “So, can we be with you guys?” he asked.

Phichit turned to the rest. “We cool with that?”

Leo and Guang-Hong nodded. Yuuri also nodded, albeit reluctantly.

He didn’t have any issue with Chris being in their group. It was just that that meant that Chris’s other friend would also be in their group.

Chris’s other friend was none other than Victor Nikiforov. Head Boy, Sports Captain, straight A student. He was the boy all the year sevens and eights had crushes on, and who could blame them? In Yuuri’s experience, people like that usually turned out to be complete dicks.

“We have six people. That’s enough right?” asked Guang-Hong.

“Yeah, it’s enough.” Leo replied.

“Should we pick a team name now?” Phichit pulled out a piece of paper and began writing their names in a list.

Victor put his fingers to his chin as if deep in thought. Then, his eyes lit up like he’d just had an amazing idea. “We could be the ‘Poodle Pups’!”

Okay, so maybe Yuuri had been wrong about Victor being a  _ complete  _ dick. No stereotypical jock-type would’ve seriously suggested a group name like that.

Chris and Phichit laughed. “Any objections?” Phichit asked the group.

There were none.

“Okay. I’ll go give this to Ciao-Ciao, be right back!”

It turned out that they were the first group to get properly organised. Which meant that they got to watch as the others got themselves confused and arguments broke out. Apparently Michele refused to go in a group without Sara, who wanted to be with Mila, and for some reason this issue required yelling to solve. Yuuri couldn’t help but despair a little that Mr Cialdini had to step in and put the people left into groups for them. How were they going to work effectively as a team if they couldn’t even get themselves into teams in the first place?

Oh well. Yuuri’s own team was sorted. That’s what really mattered.


	2. Organisation

Chris was laughing at him.

“I’m being serious!” Victor flopped onto the table in front of him. “I made myself look like an idiot.”

“You look more like an idiot now, to be honest.” There weren’t many people in the common room, but some were looking at them.

“Yes, but ‘Poodle Pups’? Really? Why did I even say that out loud?”

“Because you had an idea and wanted to share it.” Chris shrugged. “It’s not like there were any other suggestions.”

“Literally anything else would’ve been better.”

“One of the other groups just used their initials to make up some nonsense. At least our team name is actual words. And if the others didn’t like it they’d have said something.”

Victor sat back upright. “I guess you’re right.” He looked down at the textbook in front of him. “What am I supposed to be doing right now?”

“Maths paper. Due tomorrow.”

“Right. Thanks.”

They worked in silence for about five minutes before Victor sighed loudly. “He’s really pretty.”

“Who?”

“Your friend. Not Chulanont, the other one.”

“What, Yuuri?”

“Yes! Yuuri! He’s really pretty!”

Chris smirked. “Yeah, he is. You ever spoken to him before?”

“We’re in the same PSHEE class. So no.”

Chris laughed again. “Well, we’re all in the same D of E group now. So it’s probably best to talk to him at least a little before we get out there. Regardless of how pretty he is.”

“Yeah, yeah.” Victor pulled his phone out of his pocket and unlocked it. “I know.”

 

**13:57**

 

**Victor created the group Poodle Pups DofE**

 

**Victor:** who has gh or yuuri’s number? i don’t

 

**Leo added Guang-Hong**

 

**Phichit added Yuuri**

 

“Isn’t Phichit in a lesson right now?” asked Chris, staring at his phone.

“Probably,” replied Victor as he put his phone back away.

“He needs to teach me how he gets away with that.”

“His teachers probably just don’t care. He isn’t exactly subtle about using his phone in class.”

Chris pulled a face. “I wish my teachers were like that. Larry actually confiscated Ketty’s phone the other day. He gave it back at the end of the lesson, but even so, the point still stands.”

“Yes it does.” Victor focused back on his textbook. “Chris,” he said, “I don’t think I can do this right now. I want to sleep instead.”

Chris slammed his own textbook shut like he’d just been waiting for Victor to say something like that. “Sounds like a plan.”

  


**Poodle Pups DofE**

 

**17:32**

 

**Leo:** so we should probably organise group kit

 

**Guang-Hong:** aren’t we being given tents and other kit there?

 

**Leo:** yeah but matches and soap and stuff

 

**Guang-Hong:** oh yeah

 

**Yuuri:** I can bring washing up liquid

 

**Chris:** if everyone brings matches then we won’t be fucked if one person’s gets wet

 

**Phichit:** good idea

 

**Guang-Hong:** what are we doing for food? are we all bringing our own or are we doing that as a group??

 

**Yuuri:** Mr Cialdini was talking about these boil in a bag meal things the other day. That are made with camping in mind. We could see what they’re like?

 

**Phichit:** i’ve had them before + they’re pretty good

 

**Leo:** so we’ll all be in charge of our own food?

 

**Chris:** sounds good to me

 

**Phichit:** hey where’s victor? He’s involved in this too

 

**Chris:** prefect thing i think

 

**Phichit:** school ended two hours ago

 

**Chris:** he’s head boy

 

**Phichit:** true

 

**18:49**

 

**Victor:** i am here!

 

**Victor:** chris was right. small children had parents evening. prefects were required

 

**Chris:** i don’t think the year 11s count as small children they’re only a year younger than us

 

**Victor:** they still have to wear the uniform so they are small

 

**Chris:** if you say so

 

**Victor:** i have no problems with what you’ve agreed but

 

**Victor:** tents?

 

**Victor:** who’s sleeping where?

 

**Guang-Hong:** we’ll probably get given 2 3-man tents so we need to split in half

 

**Phichit:** aww and we split so nicely into 3 pairs. 3 2-man tents would be easier

 

**Leo:** more to carry

 

**Phichit:** true

 

**Yuuri:** Well that works out pkay then

 

**Yuuri:** *okay

 

**Yuuri:** All 3 pairs split up

 

**Chris:** good idea but who still goes where?

 

**Victor:** we can decide that at school tomorrow! we can draw lots!

 

**Phichit:**...i mean yeah

 

**Victor:** i’ll organise it dw! meet me by the bike shed before school tomorrow!

 

Victor ended up being the last to arrive. The other five were already chatting as he joined them.

“So how’s this actually going to work?” asked Phichit.

“Three sets of two straws. One long and one short in each pair.” Victor held them out to show the others. There were two pink, two blue, and two green. “All the longs go together and all the shorts go together.”

“Hmm. That actually makes sense,” said Chris.

“Didn’t you have faith in me? I’m hurt!”

They laughed, and drew the straws.

Victor, Guang-Hong, and Yuuri drew the short straws. Leo, Phichit, and Chris drew the long ones.

“Is this definitely okay with everyone, then?” asked Yuuri.

Everyone nodded yes.


	3. Early Start

**Poodle Pups DofE**

 

**11:29**

 

**Leo:** is everyone sorted for tomorrow?

 

**Phichit:** yup

 

**Guang-Hong:** what time do we have to be there again?

 

**Leo:** we’re due to leave school at 7:30 so before then

 

**Guang-Hong:** thought so ^_^

 

**Yuuri:** Ugh. That’s way too early

 

**Phichit:** you’ll just have to go to bed at a normal time for once haha

 

**Victor:** 7:30 isn’t early !!!!!

 

**Chris:** shut up yes it is

 

**Victor:** (

 

**Yuuri:** I haven’t even packed yet

 

**Phichit:** me neither!

 

**Yuuri:** You said you were sorted??

 

**Phichit:** i know where everything i need to take is

 

**Phichit:** the stuff just hasn’t made its way into my bags yet

 

**Victor:** i’m fully packed !!

 

**Chris:** truly you are a role model to us all

 

**Leo:** yuuri phichit anyone else go sort out your stuff now so you’re not doing it tonight or in the morning

 

**Phichit:** ...fine

  
  


“You got everything?” Yuuri nodded. “Okay, it looks like people are starting to gather by the gates, so you might as well go join them.”

“Why do you think the gates aren’t open?”

“Because that school couldn’t properly organise itself out of a paper bag.”

Yuuri laughed. He got out of the car and pulled his big rucksack and smaller backpack out of the backseat. “Bye Mari, thanks for driving me.”

“See ya in a week kiddo.” She drove off as Yuuri made his way towards the small (yet growing) group of people.

“...not even fully awake yet. We’d better be stopping on the way there.” Mila received a small chorus of agreement from those around her.

“Hi guys,” said Yuuri.

“Hi there.” “Hey.” “Hello.”

This pattern continued as more and more people arrived. The favourite topic of conversation soon became ‘why are the school gates closed the minibuses are in there’, to which the answer was ‘a lack of communication and organisation’. 

“How about ‘our school fucking sucks’?” Yuri Plisetsky suggested.

Victor hummed in agreement. “That works too.”

“I never thought I’d see the day where our head boy would agree with something like that,” said Phichit.

Chris laughed. “He says things like that all the time.”

Whatever was about to be said in response was interrupted by Kenjirou Minami excitedly pointing out the two minibuses parking in the bus stops near where they were standing. One was plain white and one clearly belonged to a different school. Any confusion the others had, however, disappeared when they saw that the buses were being driven by Mr Cialdini and Mr Feltsman.

The kids picked up their bags and dragged them over to where the minibuses were parked. Mr Feltsman approached them first.

“I want you to put your rucksacks in the back of the white bus. Make sure that anything you might want on the journey is in your small bag because we won’t be letting you at your rucksacks until we get to the bunkhouse. The group of five will be going up in the white bus with me and the two groups of six will be in the  _ other  _ bus with Mr Cialdini.”

“Why aren’t we using school minibuses?” asked Georgi.

“Because we can’t get to them. They’re inside the school grounds. Which, as you may have noticed, are locked.”

“Where did you get that one from?” Georgi pointed at the minibus that wasn’t plain white.

“That’s from the other school that Ms Baranovskaya works at. They have very graciously allowed us to borrow it for the week.”

With that settled, they proceeded to place their bags and themselves on the correct bus.

Yuuri’s group was in the bus driven by Mr Cialdini. The other group on that bus was mostly made up of people who hadn’t been at the meeting that they’d chosen their teams in.

Yuri Plisetsky, Otabek Altin, Georgi Popovich, Kenjirou Minami, Isabella Yang, and Jean-Jacques Leroy.

Yuuri had never been so grateful to have attended that meeting than he was right then. Because he was in a group with his friends (and one not-quite-yet-a-friend but they got along at least).

Yuri Plisetsky hadn’t been so lucky. So even despite having his best friend right beside him, he was absolutely brimming with rage.

“Don’t worry about the kitten.” Victor leaned forwards to say into Yuuri’s ear. “You’ll be fine so long as his rage isn’t directed at you. And even then, he’ll just kick you a bit. Not even enough to hurt. He’s harmless, really.”

“You know him?”

“Family friends. He can be a sweet kid. Sometimes.”

Yuuri smiled. “You say that like he’s a lot younger than you.”

Victor pouted a little. “He  _ is. _ ”

“Yeah, but only by a few months.”

“It still counts.”

“Sure it does.”

“Hey, Victor,” Phichit, who was sitting beside Yuuri, decided to join in, “aren’t you the oldest one here?”

“I think so. Why?”

“That means you have to be responsible for the rest of us! As the oldest, and as head boy, it’s your job to make sure we don’t die or something.”

Chris, who was sitting next to Victor laughed. “It’s going to be the other way around. This boy is a mess.”

“Really?” asked Yuuri. “You always seem so responsible to me.”

“Seriously,” said Chris. “It’s all an act.” 

“Chris! I’ve worked hard to make everyone think I’m cool! You can’t just tell them the truth like that!”

“Well they’re going to find out sooner or later. I might as well have some fun with it”

The minibus started moving.

They were on their way.


	4. Service Sation

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i did the c1 paper of my maths AS yesterday and i honestly felt like crying when i walked out of that exam so while i really shouldn't be writing during exam season here's some writing anyway because i needed to focus on something else
> 
> this has barely been read through so sorry for any mistakes

The first part of the journey was fairly uneventful. People talked to each other about a variety of things. Yuri threatened to kill JJ in his sleep on no less than three separate occasions, to which nearly everyone just laughed. Isabella complained that the other girls doing DofE were on the other bus, and Phichit reminded her that she had her phone and could just message them.

“But I want to save my battery!” she said.

“I have a multicharger and at least three spare cables, you’re good.”

Phichit was declared a lifesaver.

Guang-Hong and Leo shared Leo’s earphones to listen to music. Georgi stared out of the window. Kenjirou insisted on trying to become better friends with Yuri and Otabek, seeing as they would have to learn to work together very soon.

Victor, Chris, Yuuri, and Phichit kept up a constant stream of conversation. Yuuri couldn’t help but feel a little bad for how he’d viewed Victor before. Yuuri had always thought that Victor would be an arsehole, because how can someone that perfect not be? But Victor was so genuinely friendly ( _and_ had been the one to suggest their team name - and what a team name it was!) that Yuuri had been forced to completely reassess his view of him.

He was glad about that. For many reasons. The most immediate being that if Victor had been an arsehole then being in the same group as him for DofE wouldn’t have been fun at all.

A few hours after they’d set off from school, Mr Cialdini turned off the motorway into a service station car park. The other bus pulled up next to them.

“Okay kids, you have 40 minutes here. Go to the loo, get some food, and we’ll meet back up here.”

The service station wasn’t that big, but it was enough. Almost everyone complained upon entering that it didn’t have a McDonald’s, and Burger King just wasn’t the _same_ , but they got over it pretty quickly.

Leo and Guang-Hong agreed to meet the rest in the Starbucks, and went to save them a table in there while the other four went to the toilet.

On their way back, they couldn’t help but notice a few familiar faces staring at a claw-grab-machine.

“There’s a drone! It would be so cool to have a drone!” Mila pointed at the box inside the machine.

“I’d go for the Ipod,” said Sara.

“Do you want me to win it for you?” asked Michele.

“Mickey, you know those things are rigged, don’t waste your money.”

“It’s only 50p a go,” said Emil. “I can pay for a couple of tries if you’d like?”

Mila laughed. Michele puffed out his chest. “I only need one go! I will succeed! I can do anything for Sara!” Mila laughed some more. Sara glanced round at Yuuri & co, catching their eyes and sighing, shaking her head at her brother’s theatrics.

Everyone watched intently as Emil slid a coin into the machine and Michele took hold of the lever. He moved the claw sideways until it lined up with the Ipod box. He moved the claw back until it appeared to be directly above the box. He stopped moving the claw. He waited for it to stop wobbling. He pressed the button to start its descent. Everyone watched silently as the claw dropped down. Closer to the box, the claw opened up...

...and missed it entirely. It had been too far back.

Mila lost it. “You can’t even blame that one on the machine!” She was laughing so hard she struggled to breathe. “Your aiming is terrible!”

Amusing as it was, Yuuri & co didn’t stick around to watch any further attempts. They would surely just end the same way anyway.

They sat down at the table that Leo and Guang-Hong were sitting at inside Starbucks, each with their own drink. Phichit insisted on taking a selfie with the group that he immediately put on Instagram, making sure to tag them all. Victor had his phone out before it had finished posting to make sure that he would be the first one to like it.

As they chatted, Phichit couldn’t help but notice someone sitting a few tables down from them. He hadn’t really spoken to the boy before, but he didn’t want him to be left out. If Phichit remembered correctly, then the boy was in the group of five, so he probably wasn’t with people he was friends with. Then again, was he friends with anyone on DofE?

Phichit waved to get his attention. “Hey, Seung-Gil, you want to join us?”

Seung-Gil looked surprised. “You don’t mind?”

“Of course not! Look, there’s space. Come sit!”

Seung-Gil slid into the chair Phichit had pulled up. He didn’t participate in the conversation, but was clearly listening.

Soon, Leo pointed out that they needed to go back to the minibuses. The group of seven threw away their rubbish and walked out to the car park.

Seung-Gil grabbed Phichit’s arm before they reached the buses to stop him walking. “I just wanted to say thanks.”

“What for?”

“Letting me sit with you guys.”

“It’s no problem,” said Phichit. “You’re welcome to come join us any time!”

“Really?”

“Would I say it if I didn’t mean it?”

“You might.”

“Well I do mean it,” reassured Phichit. “Look, are you friends with the people in your group.”

“They’re okay. I don’t dislike them, but we aren’t friends.”

“Give me your phone.” Phichit entered his number in as a new contact before handing it back. “You’re on the other bus, so if you want to message me during the journey, or any time really, then you can. Now come on! The others are way ahead of us!”

As the kids got themselves settled back into their seats, Mr Cialdini said, “I bought a CD. Would you like me to put it on?” A chorus of yesses responded.

And so the next few hours were spent listening to a medley of songs from the 80s as they got closer to their destination.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> in case anyone's confused, here are the three groups:
> 
> yuuri, phichit, leo, guang-hong, chris, victor
> 
> yuri, otabek, jj, georgi, minami, isabella
> 
> sara, mila, michele, emil, seung-gil


	5. Bus Journey

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> c2 went a lot better than c1 did so my life isn't over just yet !!!! but i still have another maths paper and two politics papers and my internal exams so again i shouldn't be writing but ¯\\_(ツ)_/¯
> 
> sorry if there are any mistakes, editing isn't really a thing that's happening

Victor leant his head back against his seat. Yuuri had fallen asleep about half an hour ago and Phichit was distracted by his phone. It looked like he was messaging someone? Regardless of what he was actually doing, it meant that Victor didn’t need to keep leaning forward to include him in his and Chris’s conversation.

“Tired?” asked Chris.

Victor hummed in response.

“We’ve spent the day so far sitting on a bus.”

“You’d be surprised how tiring that can be.”

“I am.” Chris stopped, yawned, then continued. “Maybe it’s because we had to be at school so early. It meant we had to be awake even earlier.”

“Maybe it’s that, yeah.” Victor could just see Yuuri through the gap in the seats in front of him. His head was tilted towards the window, his glasses looking like they might be about to start slipping off his face.

Chris followed Victor’s gaze. “Is he asleep?”

“I think so.”

“You’re staring.”

“Do you think his glasses might fall?”

Chris peered round the seat. He tapped Phichit on the shoulder to get his attention. “Is it a good idea to take his glasses off” he pointed at Yuuri, “so they don’t fall?”

Phichit looked at his sleeping friend and nodded, before gently removing the glasses and folding them up in his lap. “I’ll hold onto them for him.”

“What are you doing, anyway?”

"Being social.”

Chris laughed. “Are you talking to Seung-Gil?”

Phichit grinned. “Yeah. He’s pretty cool.”

“Tell him I said hi.”

“Will do.” Phichit focused back on his phone.

Chris looked back over to Victor. “You’re still staring.”

“He’s _really_ pretty.”

Chris sighed. “You’ve already told me this. Multiple times.”

“But it’s true! I don’t know how I didn’t notice it before!” Victor shook his head. “And that’s not even all of it. He’s really friendly, too. He’s got a great sense of humour and we like the same kind of things. And he has a poodle, Chris!” Victor kept his voice low, so that other people on the bus wouldn’t be able to hear him over the music. “A poodle! Like Makka but smaller!”

“These are all things that are common knowledge.”

Victor rolled his eyes. “I’m having a crisis here, Chris. As my best friend you’re supposed to be supportive of me in my time of need.”

“What’s this about a crisis?” Phichit turned to face them.

“Victor has a crush on Yuuri.”

Phichit’s eyes widened. “Really?!”

“I don’t know if I’d call it a crush exactly-” Victor began to say.

Chris interrupted him. “I’ve heard countless times about how pretty Yuuri is. While it’d be difficult to find someone who disagrees, most people don’t bring it up after every interaction they have with him. I’ve also been subjected to many lists of Yuuri Katsuki’s attributes, often said with a very fond voice, like-”

“Okay! You’ve made your point. I might have a little bit of a crush.”

Phichit’s eyes seemed to sparkle. “Are you going to tell him?”

“No! I can’t do that!”

“Why not?” Chris asked.

“Because. He probably doesn’t feel the same. I mean, we barely know each other. And anyway, it’s only a small crush. It probably won’t last long.”

“I could talk to him for you.” Phichit offered.

“Don’t you dare,” said Victor.

“Okay, I won’t, don’t worry.” He smiled. “Your secret’s safe with me.”

“And me,” said Chris.

Victor sighed in relief. “Thanks.”

Phichit glanced back at his phone and typed a response to whatever message he’d just received, but he didn’t turn back around. “How much longer do you reckon until we get there?”

“Don’t know,” said Chris, “but it can’t be much further.”

“What’s the plan once we get to the bunkhouse?” asked Victor.

“Dump our stuff, be briefed again, get taken for a small hike.” Phichit didn’t look up as he said all this.

“A small what now?” Victor did not like the sound of that.

“That’s what they did last year. Today technically counts as one of the training days, so we’ll probably be walking for a couple of hours. To check that we can actually use maps and stuff.”

“A couple of hours?” Victor whined.

Phichit laughed softly. “That’s nothing compared to what the actual expedition’s going to be, you know.”

Victor turned to Chris. “Is it too late to pull out?”

Both Phichit and Chris laughed this time. “Yes, mon ami, it’s too late to pull out. You’re just going to have to suffer like the rest of us,” said Chris.

“Who’s going to suffer?”

The three boys turned to see that Yuuri had woken up. He was rubbing his eye with one hand and running the other through his hair. Victor swallowed, not trusting himself to speak.

Phichit handed Yuuri’s glasses back, which were received with a grateful smile. “We were just discussing the walk we’re likely to have to do today.”

“Oh yeah?”

“Victor was considering dropping out.”

“Sorry,” Yuuri smiled, not looking sorry at all, “it’s far too late for that. Your parents have paid for you to be here, so you don’t have a choice!”

Victor laughed. “I know. I’m not _actually_ going to drop out.”

Yuuri smiled. “Good.”

Victor looked at that smile and he felt a little strange, a bit like -

Oh.

Chris may have been more right than Victor had thought he was.

He seemed to know it too, if the way he was smirking was any indication.

By the time that Victor’s brain had caught up enough to say _hey it’s your turn to speak so you should do that,_ Yuuri had already turned away, focused on digging his phone out of his bag. The moment had passed.

Chris continued smirking.

“Shut up,” said Victor.


	6. Bunkhouse

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i need to revise for exams and do history coursework it's kinda urgent and yet here we are

Finally, they arrived at the bunkhouse that they’d be staying at for the next two days. The buses stopped and the kids all spilled out. Mr Feltsman and Mr Cialdini took the big rucksacks out of the white bus and told the kids to just grab one and get inside, and that they could sort out whose bag was whose later. Everyone proceeded to ignore this and waited for their own bag to emerge.

But they got inside eventually.

The bunkhouse was made up of four rooms - two on the ground floor and two upstairs. Each room had a giant bunk-bed along one wall with four mattresses on both of its levels, a kitchen area with a stove and fridge, and its own toilet and shower room. The room closest to the front door also contained a load of chairs arranged in rows. The kids were directed in there for a debriefing from their group leaders.

You’d think that sitting in a chair for a few minutes would be a simple task, but Yuri Plisetsky decided to demand that Kenjirou Minami switch places with him so he could be as far away from Jean-Jaques Leroy as possible. JJ overheard the demand, and the ensuing argument was at once both amusing and annoying for everyone else to listen to.

“Hey guys,” said one of the group leaders once everyone had settled down. “Welcome to your Gold DofE Practise. I’m Ryan and this is Gary,” Ryan gestured to the taller man beside him. “I’m just going to give you a quick rundown of how the next few days are going to go.

“Once we’re done here you’ll have about an hour to get settled in your rooms and to eat something, then Gary and I are going to take you out for a few hours to check some skills like map reading and using a compass.Tomorrow we’ll be sorting out the routes, and the day after you’ll start your actual expedition.” He paused and looked over the group. “Regarding rooms, please can the three girls take this one and the rest of you divide yourselves equally among the others?

“Also, the electricity works on a meter here. You see this box?” Ryan pointed to a box mounted to the wall just above his head. “You see the stack of cards above it? When the electricity in your room runs out you need to put one of the cards in the slot on the front. There’s an arrow to show you the direction you need to put it in.” He showed the group. “Just put used tickets in the bin.

“Okay, so off you all go, and we’ll see you back here in an hour.”

The girls went about sorting themselves out in that room. Everyone else seemed to wordlessly decide that each group should take a room, seeing as there were three groups and three remaining rooms. Yuuri’s group ended up in the one that was upstairs on the right, while Seung-Gil’s group of just three without the girls there got the one on the left. Yuri Plisetsky’s group took the remaining room downstairs.

“These beds are strange,” said Guang-Hong.

“Yeah,” agreed Leo.

“How are we going to do this?” asked Yuuri.

“We could do it by tent,” suggested Chris. “So one tent takes the top bunk, and other takes the bottom?”

“What, so you’re not content with just splitting Leo and I up on the expedition, you want to do it here too?” Guang-Hong brought his hand to his chest in an obviously over-the-top gesture. Leo laughed.

Phichit was also laughing as he said, “That’s probably the easiest way to do it, to be honest. Does anyone have a preference as to which bunk they’d like?”

“Top bunk for me!” Victor declared, walking over and placing his small backpack on it to further solidify his claim.

“Okay then. Yuuri, Guang-Hong, you okay with that?” asked Phichit.

Evidently, Victor had forgotten that he was due to be sleeping close to Yuuri for the next week, if the way his eyes widened at Phichit’s question was anything to go by. It took everything in Chris not to start laughing at the expression on his friend’s face, successfully stopping himself at just a smile. It didn’t quite go unnoticed. Leo caught his eye and raised his eyebrows in a questioning manner. Chris just shook his head.

Once everyone had set their sleeping bags up (Victor’s had ended up next to Yuuri’s, because _of course it did_ ) and they’d each picked a corner of the room for their bags to go in, they each got started on food for themselves.

Most of them had brought sandwiches or something similar along to eat for this meal. Phichit had leftover pizza from the day before, which wasn’t too unusual.

But Victor...

“Why did you bring a tin of tuna?” asked Chris.

“It wasn’t my idea!”

“What are you planning to do with it?”

“I don’t want to be carrying it on the expedition, so I might as well eat it now!” With an air of confidence Victor grabbed a pan out of the cupboard and place it on the stove. He opened the tin and tipped the contents into it.

“Uh, Victor?” said Yuuri. “What are you doing?”

“I’m warming up the tuna.”

“Do you have anything to go with it? Or some seasoning, even?”

Victor froze, but quickly recovered. “I have some olives in my bag. Chris, could you get them for me?”

“Get them yourself.”

Victor darted to his bag and pulled out a packet of dried olives. He opened it and tipped them into the pan. He stirred his concoction. Phichit wordlessly opened the window.

“You sure do have a lot of food there, Victor,” said Guang-Hong.

“Would you like some?”

Guang-Hong backed away. “No, that’s okay.”

“Are you sure?”

“Very.”

They all stood in silence for a minute or so. Then, Victor cracked. “This is going to be terrible, isn’t it?”

“Yes,” Phichit replied instantly.”

“Very,” added Chris.

“I’m actually a little concerned right now,” said Phichit, “how are you going to survive at university if that’s your idea of cooking for yourself?”

“Don’t forget that he’s our head boy! He’s supposed to be the example that we should all look up to!” Chris shook his head.

“Okay, I get it.” Victor turned the stove off. “I don’t even care about warming it up any more.” He grabbed a fork out of the drawer and opened the cupboard with the plates, but closed it without getting one out. He picked up the pan, that clearly hadn’t had the opportunity to get too hot, and ate a mouthful of his lukewarm tuna and olives.

He scrunched his face up in disgust. Chris and Phichit laughed at his pain. “I swear,” he said once he’d swallowed it, “that I don’t usually fuck up this badly.”

“Would you like to have something else?” Yuuri gestured to his bag. “I brought too much food so I have spare.”

Victor smiled. “That’s so kind of you to offer, Yuuri, but no. I’m not going to waste this even if it is torturous to eat!”

“Victor, if you’ve made my things smell of tuna I will not forgive you,” said Leo.

“Ah, I’m sorry.”

“I opened the window so that should help.” Phichit was still laughing.

Even Yuuri was clearly finding Victor’s self-inflicted pain entertaining. “Victor,” he began.

Victor swallowed the next mouthful. “Yes?”

“For Assessment, ditch the tuna.”

“Don’t worry Yuuri. After I’ve finished this I don’t think I’m going anywhere near tuna ever again!”


	7. Training Begins!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> so my external exams are done but i still have internal exams next week h e l p
> 
> also as i'm posting this polling stations in the uk will have just closed and nobody has any idea what the situation is so this should be fun. the reason why this chapter isn't that good is because i'm more focused on the election right now. it's kinda important

The three groups gathered outside the bunkhouse, their hour’s break being up. Gary and Ryan handed maps and compasses out so every group had two of each. Leo and Guang-Hong each claimed a compass, while Chris and Victor took maps. Yuuri and Phichit brought small backpacks with everyone’s water bottles inside. Everyone had a job.

“So,” said Gary to the Poodle Pups, “I’ll be taking you guys.”

“But then Ryan’s left with two groups,” said Guang-Hong. “Isn’t that a bit unfair?”

“Nah, he’s fine. He can handle the extra people.”

Chris raised an eyebrow. “Are you saying you can’t?”

Gary laughed. “Not at all. Now, we want to be heading north. Can you tell me which way we need to go?”

A few moments of fumbling later the boys confidently pointed to the right and they set off.

“What are all your names?” asked Gary.

“I’m Phichit.” Phichit pointed to the others. “That’s Yuuri, Guang-Hong, Leo, Chris, and Victor.”

“There’s no way I’m going to remember all of that at once, sorry.”

“That’s okay,” said Phichit. “We’ll just have to keep reminding you.”

They were walking along a narrow road through some trees. The road alternated between being uphill and downhill. Before long they hit a small collection of houses.

“Hey, Yuuri, imagine living here,” said Phichit.

“It’s nice. Quiet.”

“It would be annoying,” added Leo. This seemed to surprise most of the others, so he elaborated. “It’s really out of the way. There’s no shops around and you’d have to be able to drive to get anywhere as there’s no buses either. This is the Peak District so walking isn’t exactly convenient.”

“We’re going to spend the next week walking around the Peak District.” Guang-Hong deadpanned.

“And my legs are dying already just thinking about it.”

Gary laughed. “You get used to it if you live here.”

“Do you?” asked Victor.

“Yes. The peaks are basically like my back garden.” He smiled. “Anyway, boys, we want to take this footpath,” he pointed on the map, “out of the village and onto this area here. Can you see where that is?”

“Is it that path there?” Yuuri pointed down the road to where there was a small gap between two houses.

“Are you asking me or telling me?”

Yuuri thought for a second and glanced at the map again. “Telling,” he said once he was certain.

“Correct!” said Gary. “Lead the way!”

So they did.

The other two groups (that had for now melded into one bigger group being led by Ryan) were following close behind them.

The difference between Gary and Ryan was quickly becoming obvious. Gary only stopped the group when they asked for a break from the constant walking uphill, and talked to them about the area’s history as they walked. Ryan, however, appeared to be constantly stopping his group to talk to them, and as a result the distance between the groups increased.

And increased.

Before too long they couldn’t see them anymore, they were so far behind.

At one point while they were taking a break to drink some water, Gary pointed to a path next to them and asked them to find it on the map.

“I swear it’s not on there,” said Guang-Hong after they’d all spent a few moments staring at the map in confusion.

“Correct! It’s not!” The boys looked at him. “That’s a path made by sheep. It looks like it should be a footpath, but it isn’t. You’ll come across a lot of those and need to make sure you don’t end up following them accidently, or you could end up in completely the wrong place. Or going round in circles for hours. Or both.”

“Oh,” said Guang-Hong. The other boys also made various noises of agreement. It was pretty good advice.

And so they continued with their walk.

Around three hours after they’d left the bunkhouse earlier that afternoon they arrived back. There was no sign of the other groups.

The boys went up to their room and negotiated phone charging. This was a relatively simple process as Phichit had brought a multi-charger with him (Yuuri had initially questioned the decision as he’d felt that it wasn’t necessary but was now prepared to admit defeat). Everyone plugged their phone chargers into the multi-charger which was then plugged into the wall. There were even gaps left! And an unused socket!

“We can tell some of the others they can charge their phones here if they need to.” Yuuri said.

It was another hour before the others returned, however.

“Where have you guys been?” Chris called out to the people walking up the stairs.

Michele stopped in their doorway. “Ryan stopped us every five fucking minutes to check whether we could read a map and to enlighten us on where the ancient caves are.”

“Gary told us all that stuff too, but he didn’t stop us much. He walked and talked.”

Michele sighed. “How long have you been back.”

“Over an hour,” said Leo. “Did you get lost or something? Because even constant stopping couldn’t have delayed you  _ that  _ much.”

Michele threw his arms up. “I don’t even know! He kept slowing us down but wouldn’t actually  _ tell  _ us anything.”

Seung-Gil joined Michele in the doorway. “It was annoying,” he added. “But, yes, I think we did get a bit lost.”

“How badly lost?” asked Phichit.

“Not very, but clearly enough to be noticeable,” said Seung-Gil. “It doesn’t matter anyway. We made it back.”

“That you did,” said Phichit.

“How long until food?” asked Chris.

Michele waved goodbye while Seung-Gil answered. “Mr Feltsman and Mr Cialdini were just starting on it when we got here, but I think it’s pasta so I doubt it’ll take long.”

“Great!” Chris flopped back onto his bed. “I’m starving!”

“Do you want to hang with us until dinner?” asked Phichit.

Seung-Gil nodded, and entered the room properly.


	8. Tuna

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> you'd think with study leave i'd have written more but nope

As Seung-Gil sat at the table in the centre of the room, Chris asked Victor a question.

“What did you do with the rest of the tuna?”

“He didn’t finish it?” asked Guang-Hong.

“Of course I did!” said Victor.

“Of course he didn’t, he’s not a God, and only someone truly divine could have stomached _that_.”

“Tuna?” asked Seung-Gil.

“Victor tried cooking earlier,” Phichit explained. “It didn’t work out.”

“I’ll have you all know that I am usually a very good cook and that was in no way an accurate representation of my skills.”

“I can vouch for that,” said Chris, “but my question still stands.”

“What was your question again?” asked Victor.

“Where’s the rest of the tuna?”

“It is nowhere because it is gone.”

Yuuri wordlessly walked over to the fridge and withdrew the pan containing the tuna and olive mixture. There was still a good amount of it left. He held it up so everyone could see.

Chris smirked. “That doesn’t look very ‘gone’ to me.”

“Yuuri, how could you betray me this way?” Victor pouted.

“I don’t know why you didn’t just put it in the bin,” Yuuri sighed.

“Because that would be a waste of food!”

“Are you going to eat it?” asked Yuuri. Victor thought for a moment, then shook his head. “Does anyone else want it?” A murmur of noes was the response. “Is there anyone else around who might want it?”

“I know!” Victor said.

“You do?” Yuuri hadn’t been expecting that, and had just been about to tip it into the bin. But if Victor knew someone who might want it...

“Yes! Yuri Plisetsky is practically a cat, and cats love tuna!”

It took a few seconds for what Victor had just said to sink in.

Then, everyone started laughing. Even Seung-Gil was giggling a little.

Yuuri held the pan out to Victor. “If you think he’d like it then you have to be the one to give it to him.”

Victor was laughing about it, too. “It would be pretty funny.”

“Go on then!” said Yuuri. “I dare you to go to Yuri and give him that.”

“Well, if it’s a dare!” Victor sprung up from where he was sitting, grabbed the pan, and began making his way downstairs. Phichit grabbed his phone and followed, ready to film the whole thing.

The other boys didn’t leave the room. Yuuri climbed onto the top set of beds as they listened to the voices coming from below.

Things sounded calm. Yuri sounded a bit confused. Victor said something, they couldn’t hear what, and then...

Yelling, from Yuri.

Laughter, from Phichit.

Yet more yelling, this time from Mr Feltsman.

Footsteps, presumably from Victor and Phichit coming back upstairs.

Phichit re-entered the room first. He was laughing so hard that he was starting to cry. When Victor reached the doorway, everyone could see why.

Clearly Yuri had not taken kindly to being told that he was sure to enjoy Victor’s failed meal because he was a cat who must love tuna. This was evident due to the fact that Yuri had thrown the tuna over Victor’s head.

“I don’t think he liked it.” Victor deadpanned as everyone stared.

“Phichit,” said Chris, grinning, “ _please_ tell me you got a video of that.”

“It’s right here!” Phichit handed his phone over and Chris began to watch. Leo and Guang-Hong leaned over his shoulders so they could see, too.

Victor still stood in the doorway looking sorry for himself.

“You okay over there?” asked Yuuri.

“I’m not sure.”

Yuuri laughed. “Go take a shower.”

Victor nodded and carefully (so as to not drop tuna everywhere) went into the bathroom.

Phichit had retrieved his phone from Chris. “Hey, Yuuri, Seung-Gil, want to watch?”

Yuuri slid down from the top bunk so they could watch it together.

“Don’t post this online.”

“Huh?”

“Unless Victor says you can, I mean,” Yuuri clarified, “but I don’t think he will. He doesn’t strike me as the type who’d want this video going round the whole school. And you know that’s what’ll happen.”

“Fine,” said Phichit, “but can I at least send it to our group chat?”

“You have to ask him first.”

Phichit shrugged. “Fair enough,” he said.


	9. Shower Thoughts

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> this has had pretty much no editing so if you spot any mistakes then please tell me : D

Victor entered the bathroom and locked the door behind him.

Despite what he feared some people in his group might be starting to think, Victor Nikiforov was not stupid. Quite the opposite. And he knew what Yuri was like. He knew that deliberately riling him up like that wouldn’t go well.

He hadn’t expected a face full of tuna, but in all honestly he wasn’t surprised that that’s what he’d got.

If anyone else had suggested that actually Victor do it, he wouldn’t have. There was no doubt in his mind. But Yuuri had been the one to make the suggestion. Not only that, he’d actually  _ dared  _ him to do it.

There had been no way that Victor was going to refuse. Even if he’d known he would end up covered in tuna, he’d have done it anyway.

Content with that realisation, Victor pulled off his fish-smelling clothes. He was just about to grab his soap and get in the shower when he heard voices through the door.

“...don’t think he will. He doesn’t strike me as the type who’d want this video going round the whole school. And you know that’s what’ll happen.”

“Fine, but can I at least send it to our group chat?”

“You have to ask him first.”

Victor stopped eavesdropping and actually got in the shower. As he let the water run over him, he thought about what he’d just heard.

He honestly hadn’t even considered that Phichit would want to post that video online. Which, come to think of it, was silly, and he should have known better. But he hadn’t thought of it. Yuuri had, though. Yuuri had remembered Phichit’s tendency to post everything on his various social medias. He’d made sure to tell Phichit not to do so. To get permission first.

It was such a small thing. The decent thing to do. Anyone would have done it.

Except...

No, they wouldn’t have. Victor was certain that if Yuuri hadn’t been right there next to Phichit telling him not to post it, that video would already be making the rounds on Instagram at the very least. Which Victor would definitely not have appreciated.

Yuuri had spoken up for him.

Victor didn’t actually know Yuuri all that well. Yes, he had a small crush, but he hadn’t really been thinking too much of it. He certainly wasn’t planning on doing anything about it, except maybe make Chris’s life miserable for a bit.

(Chris was a hypocrite if he complained, but Victor was a good friend who wasn’t about to rat him out)

But this one, tiny act of kindness was causing Victor to actually think about his feelings, at least a little.

Victor sighed and ran his hands through his (now tuna-free) hair. He had no idea what he was going to do. He could physically feel himself fall a little further for Yuuri, and there was nothing he could do about it.

He grabbed his soap and got to work. He’d just finished lathering his hair when the water abruptly cut off.

Confused, he tried turning it off and on again, but nothing happened.

“Guys,” he yelled to the people back in the main room, “the water just stopped!”

“What?” somebody said back.

“The water! It’s stopped!”

He heard some muttering come through the door, but couldn’t make out any words. Then he heard a chair being moved, while somebody said through the door, “it’s an electric shower so we probably just have to put another card in the meter.”

“Okay, thank you!” Victor responded.

A moment’s silence, and then - 

“Victor! I don’t know how you managed it, but you’ve managed to put us a penny in debt!” It was definitely Chris’s voice, and he sounded very amused.

Whoever was standing on the chair that Victor had heard being dragged, presumably to where the meter was, must have finished putting the new card in because the water suddenly started running again. Victor had to stop himself from screaming a little from the surprise.

He finished his shower quickly, tied his towel around himself, and re-entered the main room.

“Can I post the video of you getting tunad on the group chat?” Phichit immediately asked.

“Only as long as it doesn’t end up anywhere else. Ever.”

“Sweet.” Phichit immediately got his phone out to share it.

“Now, now, Victor,” Chris had a shit-eating grin on his face. “What on earth are we going to do about your gambling problem?”

“What are you talking about?”

“We were in debt! Because of you!  _ You  _ put us in debt!”

“...By 1p. That was more than covered by putting another card in?”

Chris waved his hand dismissively. “Details, details.”

Victor couldn’t help but smile a little. It was far from the funniest joke Chris had ever come up with, and it sounded like something he wasn’t going to let go anytime soon. But he’d rather he joke about the electricity being weird than the Tuna Incident ™.

Although, to be fair, Chris probably wasn’t going to let him forget that, either.

**Author's Note:**

> if you have any ideas then tell me and i'll see if i can include them somehow !!
> 
> comments are always appreciated : D
> 
> [tumblr](http://astralpenguin.tumblr.com/)


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